Binky's High Blood Pressure
by Jemascola
Summary: While at the pharmacy, Binky discovers that he may have high blood pressure.
1. Chapter 1

**Binky's High Blood Pressure**

_**By Joe**_

**Summary:** While at the pharmacy, Binky discovers that he may have high blood pressure.

**Author Notes:** I do not own _Arthur_, its characters, or any other copyrighted material. Many of you may read the title and think it's another boring story about a character developing a health problem. However, it is nothing of that nature, as you will eventually find out.

**Chapter 1**

One summer day, Binky was outside in the front yard kicking a soccer ball with his friends, Arthur, Buster, Francine, and the Brain. They were having lots of fun together. Just then, Binky's father walked out the front door and called Binky over.

"Binky, I have a mild case of gout, and my doctor prescribed some medicine for me. Would you please walk to the pharmacy and pick it up? Here's my health insurance card and the prescription," Mr. Barnes said, handing Binky the card and prescription.

"Sure, Dad. I'll be right back," smiled Binky. Mr. Barnes went back inside and shut the door. Binky went to his friends. "Hey guys, I'll be right back. I've got to go get some medicine for my dad."

"Sure, Binky," Arthur said.

Binky ran off with the health card and prescription in hand. He went to downtown Elwood City, where he entered a somewhat large building called Elwood Drug Store. In the back of the store was the counter where one was to receive drugs. Binky walked to the back counter, passing by the aisles of toys, hygiene products, and all sorts of other things. Binky saw the pharmacist and spoke to her. "Excuse me, ma'am. My dad has gout, and his doctor prescribed some medicine for him. He told me to come down here and get it for him." Binky placed the health insurance card and prescription on the counter.

The pharmacist scanned the health insurance card through the machine and scanned the prescription. She handed the card and prescription back to Binky, who put it in his pocket. "Okay, give us about 5 minutes," the pharmacist smiled.

"Thanks," said Binky. The pharmacist walked off to get the drug. Binky looked around. There weren't any chairs. He would have to stand up for five whole minutes. That was not very comfortable for him. "Man…" groaned Binky. "I've got to find a place to sit. I need a chair." Binky looked up and down the aisles, but no chair in sight. "I know…maybe I'll **buy** a chair here!" Binky went to the front counter at the front of the store. "Excuse me, I would like to buy a chair here," Binky said.

The cashier laughed. "I'm sorry son, but we don't sell chairs here. This is a drug store!"

"Aw man…" Binky said glumly. He sulked and walked up and down the aisles again, still trying to look for a chair. But then, his luck changed! In an abandoned, dark corner of the drug store, Binky saw some big machine with a little stool attached to it. "All right, a chair!" Binky shouted. He darted over to it and sat down. "Ah…that feels great…" But then, he noticed that the stool was attached to a large machine. "What's this?" Binky wondered.

The machine had three red buttons: start, stop, and clear. The machine also had two display screens for numbers to appear. The buttons and screens were on a plastic board that had a bunch of information about something known as blood pressure. Binky read the information aloud. "If your blood pressure is below 120/80, then you have normal blood pressure. If it is between 120/80 and 139/89, then you have prehypertension. If your blood pressure is 140/90 or higher, then you have high blood pressure. Hmm…I'm not sure if I understand what this thing is talking about, but whatever this blood pressure stuff is, it sounds interesting enough. I ought to check my blood pressure."

Binky placed his left arm through the cuff and pressed the start button as the information on the plastic board instructed. Binky heard a humming sound, and he began to feel the cuff squeezing tightly against his upper arm. As the seconds passed, the cuff squeezed harder and harder. Binky's eyes began to bulge out it their sockets. "Ow! Ow! Ow! Too hard! Too hard!" cried Binky. But then, the machine stopped. Binky could hear and feel the cuff releasing more and more air. Eventually, the cuff had loosened enough for Binky to feel more comfortable. Finally, the machine released all remaining air inside the cuff at one time, and a hissing noise emitted. Then, big digital numbers appeared on the screens.

"Oh no!" cried Binky when he saw the numbers. According to the machine, Binky's blood pressure was 206/117. He had high blood pressure! "T-t-that can't be right," Binky stuttered. "Let me try it again," he said. Binky pressed the clear button and the start button, and the process continued again. About 30 seconds later, the second blood pressure test was over, and once again, Binky had high blood pressure. This time, his numbers were 204/125. "Ah! Ahhhhh!" Binky screamed. "Oh no! Oh no! I'm not healthy! I'm going to die!"

Then, over the intercom, the pharmacist called Binky. "Mr. Barnes, your medicine is ready." Binky shivered as he shakily walked out of the dark, lonely section of the drug store into the much more populous area. He approached the counter. The pharmacist handed him a paper bag with the medicine inside. "There you are. Have a nice day," she smiled. Binky's arm slowly and shakily reached out and grabbed the bag. He looked extremely horrified. "Are you okay?" the pharmacist asked with concern.

"S-s-sure…I'm f-fine," Binky said. He then staggered through the aisles and left the Elwood Drug Store. "What have I done?" choked Binky. "Why did I have to get high blood pressure? What's wrong with me? I gotta get some help fast!" he said, running down the street and back home.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Binky returned home as shaky as ever. He ran into the house, nearly tripping on the doorstep. Mr. Barnes came across Binky and started to talk to him, but Binky interrupted him by saying, "Here's your medicine, card, and prescription, Dad" and dropping them on the ground and running off crying into his room.

Outside, Arthur and the others had seen Binky running into the house. "Binky's back," Buster said. "He should be out in a moment or so," said Buster. But they waited and waited and waited. However, even 10 minutes after Binky had returned home, he still did not return outside to play with the others.

"What's taking Binky so long?" Francine asked.

"I don't know," Arthur said. "Let's go inside and find out." Arthur, Buster, Francine, and Brain walked up to Binky's front door and rang the doorbell. Mr. Barnes answered the door. "Excuse me, but is Binky coming out again?" Arthur asked.

"I don't know," Mr. Barnes said, "but he sure is acting strange. He ran to his room crying."

"Binky _crying_?" Francine gasped. "Something **must** be troubling him."

Brain looked at his watch. "Oh well, I'd better be getting home anyway." The others agreed and darted off in different directions to return home.

The next day, Binky was sulking in his room, doing nothing but lying on his bed. "Maybe…" he theorized, "if I do nothing all day, my blood pressure will be normal." He had been lying on his bed for about 3 hours. Binky was almost in a completely tranquil state, when the sharp, annoying ringing of the telephone broke him out of his oneness with relaxation. "Oh, darn it!" snapped Binky. "My blood pressure's sure to be sky-high now!" He answered the phone. "What do you want?" he growled.

"Binky? Are you okay?" It was the Brain.

"No, I'm not okay," Binky grumbled.

"What's wrong?" his friend asked.

"Will you promise not to tell anyone?" Binky asked.

"Sure, Binky," the Brain said.

"Okay…remember when I went to the pharmacy to pick up my dad's medicine?" Binky asked.

"Yes," said the Brain.

"Well, while I was waiting, I wanted to sit in a chair, but they didn't have any. Then, I saw a stool attached to this machine for checking blood pressure. I sat down and had my blood pressure checked," said Binky.

"And?" the Brain asked.

"Both times, my blood pressure was high!" cried Binky. He then sobbed. "What have I done? I need help, Brain. How can I lower my blood pressure?"

"Come over to my house, and I'll see what we can do to lower your blood pressure," Brain said.

"Okay," said Binky. He hung up the phone and left his room for Brain's house. For the first time in hours, he felt hopeful that he could get better.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

When Binky got to Brain's house, he saw the Brain standing in the front yard. The two waved at each other. "Hello, Binky," the Brain said. "Come inside, and I shall begin to devise a remedy for your high blood pressure."

Binky followed the Brain inside and sat down at the kitchen table. "Okay, what do we do first?" Binky asked.

"First, I'll take your blood pressure right now with my dad's home kit," Brain said. He took a manually-inflating cuff and strapped it around Binky. He then turned a few knobs here and there and began squeezing the bulb to inflate the cuff. However, for some reason, the cuff was not inflating at all. "Drat, the monitor's not working," the Brain said, unstrapping it from Binky. "I guess we'll have to skip that step. Now, for one thing, I would suggest that you try not to get angry or worked up so much. That is a key ingredient for high blood pressure."

"Check," Binky said.

"One thing that lowers blood pressure is lots of exercise. Let's go ride bikes for a while," the Brain suggested.

Outside, Binky and Brain got on some of Brain's bikes, and they began to ride. Brain rode as fast as he could. "This sure is fun, isn't it, Binky?" He didn't hear Binky respond. "Binky?" He turned his head around, only to see that Binky was barely managing to keep up with the Brain. He was panting and out of breath. Suddenly, his bike fell over, and Binky crashed on the ground. Brain got off his bike and rushed to assist Binky.

Later, Binky was bandaged all over, and he was back in the Brain's kitchen. "Okay, so exercise isn't a quick cure for you yet." Brain paused for a moment. "I know! You can cut back on your sodium intake!"

"What's sodium?" Binky asked as he grabbed a bag of potato chips and devouring them all at once.

"Binky!" cried the Brain as he snatched the bag away. "Those are full of sodium! You can't eat those if you want to lower your blood pressure!"

"Oh yeah, well I don't care!" Binky snapped. "Even if it does make my blood pressure high, I want to eat them no matter what!"

Brain sighed. "Okay, fine…I guess the last thing I can think of is for you to lose a bit of that weight. I'll bet you anything that's what's causing your high blood pressure."

"Are you calling me fat?" roared Binky.

"N-n-no…" stuttered the Brain, "but I do think you're a bit on the chubby side."

Binky shoved his fist into Brain's face. "If you say one more thing about my weight, I'll pound you!"

"Okay, okay!" Brain said. "Fine, you can deal with your blood pressure on your own. I quit!" He stormed out of the kitchen.

Binky sighed. He lost all the help that he had. Now he was all alone, and he had to suffer with his condition. Sadly and with great despair, he trudged home. Binky then plopped on his bed. "Well, this is it, Binky. You're going to die, now. You've only got a short time left before you bite the dust." He sighed again. "Might as well go back to the pharmacy and check my blood pressure one more time just to remind myself of how dangerously high it is."

Binky then left his house and slowly walked to the Elwood Drug Store with his head bent down the entire time. Binky entered the pharmacy and went to the part of the store where the blood pressure machine was. He was a bit surprised to see a man on his knees with tools, performing some sort of maintenance on the machine. Binky tapped him on the shoulder, and he looked at Binky. "Excuse me, sir, but I have extremely high blood pressure. I learned that when I got blood pressure readings on that machine yesterday. I need to check it again, just to remind myself of how dangerously high it is," Binky said to the man.

The man laughed and then said, "You checked it here yesterday? Are you sure your blood pressure's high? Did you have it checked anywhere else?"

"Yeah, I checked it here yesterday. It's the only place I've ever checked it," said Binky, rubbing the back of his neck.

The man laughed again. "Don't worry, kid, you're probably okay."

Binky gasped, "Huh?"

"Relax, this machine's been broken for months. We got many complaints from people who have tested their blood pressure on this machine saying that their blood pressure was substantially higher than normal. The funny thing is, most of them stayed around the 200/100 area. But I'm in the process of fixing it right now, and it looks like it just needs some recalibration. Won't take me but a few more minutes. When I'm done, you can test it to see if it's fixed."

"Sounds great!" exclaimed Binky. With that, he felt a huge wave of relief. Perhaps he really didn't have high blood pressure after all. It was only the fault of the machine. What a relief for Binky!

A few minutes passed, and the man was finished fixing the machine. Binky sat on the stool and pressed the start button. Again, the cuff squeezed all the life out of Binky's upper arm for about half a minute. Binky was suddenly worried again. What if his blood pressure was still high? What if he really did have high blood pressure? What could he do? Binky had to know. Finally, when the cuff released all the air, the screens on the machine displayed Binky's blood pressure. Binky's eyes widened.

"All right, kid, 110/70 – your blood pressure is completely normal," the man said.

"Yes!" exclaimed Binky. "Woo hoo!" He danced out of the store and ran up and down the street as fast as he could. He went to the park, where he saw Arthur, Buster, Francine, and Brain playing soccer. Binky eagerly joined in the fun.

"So, Binky, what made you so happy?" Brain asked.

"Turns out my blood pressure wasn't high after all – it was just a faulty machine," said Binky.

"That's good to hear," said the Brain. Binky and the others continued to play soccer for the rest of the day until the kids had to return home. It was indeed a very good day for Binky.

**The End**


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